FB73tii

Yes, I ran them for years on the street--with a full race suspension. Stiff as hell, potholes go bang. Racing-style camber plates with solid spherical bearings are for performance, not comfort. And when the bearing wears you will get some clicking. If you are shortening your struts for looks ("stance" in modern parlance) you don't need camber plates. If you are shortening your struts for handing and doing coil-overs specifically so you can run more negative camber, both for *performance* reasons, then you will want camber plates and live with both their costs and benefits. Perhaps you can provide more information on intended use of your car? --Fred

Was the leaking cold start valve ever fixed?

I imagine it was once a round profile O-ring. Being tightened into the KF body and heat cycling for 20-40 years has caused it to take a set. But I've never seen a new BMW O-ring! --FB

As I recall the crush washer is small, thin, and deep in the pump, at the opposite end of the threads from the O-ring. If it stays in place you might not notice it was there. I think Jim has it right, #11 in the diagram. That diagram is not in the Blue parts manual, so I can't provide a part number. As long as it does not leak, you are fine! As an aside, check the small barrel-shaped brass wire fuel filter screen in the KF Y-shaped inlet. The screen sits inside the banjo bolt (#41 above). I checked mine years ago and it was half gone, like it dissolved. I just took it out. I don't see it in the parts diagrams, so again no P/N. from my notes (1997), the is a small square circlip that holds in the screen. It must be part of the original banjo bolt assembly, with is long since NLA.

I learned by experience--don't remove that nipple unless you have a new O-ring in hand to install. If it didn't leak before, it will if an old o-ring is used. And yes, I do recall a small metal seal washer as well, be sure not to lose that! --Fred

Marshall--I had planned to run at the NJ BMW CCA school but my '69 DCOE is unhappy and I have decided to take the summer off and get my slide throttle engine running. I think I have a bad carb which is making tuning impossible. Good thing I did not have a sledgehammer handy last weekend--very frustrating to spend as much time as I have on the car and still have it run like poo. I might come out to instruct, not sure yet. Back to topic: Ian--that must be a euro model, given the yellow headlight lenses --Fred

Ian, great finally meeting you in person at Watkins Glen this past weekend after our first e-mail conversations over 20 years ago. Looking forward to seeing your '02 completed and on track next year. Our discussion of the early days of BMW 2002 discussion lists, when we were running DOS and before the first Internet browser (Mosaic) was released, brought back some memories. On the BMW Digest (hosted on Majordomo) we had Ware Adams, Ben Thongsai, Filippo Morelli, Curt Ingraham (RIP), Jim Conforti (Land Shark), Richard Welty, Gary Bossert, Steve D'Gerolamo and many others. I also remembered the other listserv from that era, the 2002 Digest hosted by Chris Kent. I even found a few posts of mine from 1994 from my old fredric_at_ux5.lbl.gov address. Best regards, Fred

Yep--bad rings and do both a compression and leakdown test to isolate the cause and determine if worth fixing at this point. Would not expect that after only 25,000 miles on a new bottom end, unless they were all track miles. Here's a related discussion: Smoke from the valve cover breather http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/125740-smoke-from-the-valve-cover-breather/

Hmmm. You don't want to lift if the car is already *oversteering*, but the cure for understeer is to straighten the wheel a bit and lift slightly, which transfers a bit of weight to the front to help regain grip. A touch of left foot brake (if you are so inclined) can help as well. Driving with bald tires in the rain is like driving on ice, everything has to be done very smoothly and gently. Here the "lift and unwind" to deal with understeer is done lightly and progressively. Not that driving with bald tires is ever a good idea, but great practice on a skid pad. Perhaps what happened here is known in NASCAR parlance as "push-loose". The car initially understeers so you lift to give the front grip. But if you don't unwind the steering wheel at the same time, the front bite now turns the front of the car in the direction of what will become the spin, the rear end is already lightened up from lifting, and you go into snap oversteer. Of course the cure for oversteer (if the yaw angle and rate are not too severe), is to stay on the gas or even apply a touch more power and countersteer, then wait for the car to hook up and unwind steering so that you do not get secondary oversteer in the opposite direction ("tank slapper"). Using the Skip Barber method that is known as CPR, or "Correct, Pause, Recover." For Toby's consideration--I have found that lighting up the rear tires in a severe oversteer situation (during the "Pause" portion) reduces friction in the rear and makes for a softer recovery. Then just as the car comes back to straight I lift slightly to let the rear tires slow down and bite, then I hammer the gas and it pulls me straight out. Never have seen this taught, it just came to me at one point after many sideways adventures (all on closed circuit, of course ). Perhaps I picked it up from watching racing--the pros light up the tires in a spin so they don't flatspot the rear. When Joachim Winklehock spins he always seems to end up backing off the track in a reverse direction, so that he does not get hit and can then just hit the gas and go. Very interesting.... --Fred

I remember a discussion on this a few years back. I didn't find it, but here are two that are similar: 1976 Dies On Hard Braking - #12 Fuse Blown http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/150296-1976-dies-on-hard-braking-12-fuse-blown/ Hard braking kills engine - diagnosis? http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/53285-hard-braking-kills-engine-diagnosis/

Searching on "paint" and "paint job" is not particularly helpful, but when I searched on "roller paint job" I got a ton of relevant hits. That comes from the $50 paint job using free surplus school bus paint, small fine foam rollers, and barrels of elbow grease (and a few kegs of beer ) Here you go: So I painted my e12 with a roller http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/136696-so-i-painted-my-e12-with-a-roller/ Great paint job on the cheap? http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/131662-great-paint-job-on-the-cheap/ Some help understanding repainting http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/130984-some-help-understanding-repainting The answer of course is you get what you pay for and the question is what is your end goal? The range is $50 to $10,000 depending on if it's a Chump race car or a Pebble Beach show car. --Fred (who has done some roller painting, but only the primer)

I was thinking the same thing. Is it plastic?

I've thought about this for some time. With new organic and dye-based PV materials, my thought is to mix it into an ashpalt topcoat and pave with it. There is plenty of road surface. A low-cost low-yield PV material would be used. The roads would carry the current (no new transmission lines needed), and perhaps cars could pick up the energy by induction and be charged via some kind of smart metering. How all this works I don't know--self assembling carbon-nanotubes form a self-healing network? The practicality of all this is likely very low, but it is good to think outside of the box, perhaps another more doable idea will emerge. As I think about it, would not want to walk across an electrified road. And what happens when it rains? ...Oh well. --Fred

Yeah, something is just not right about "suddenly closing shop and everything (including several cars) must be sold in less than 24 hours." If it smells like a scam, it usually is! --FB

I'm not a turbo guy (yet), but the first question I would ask is how much power do you want to make and how will the car be used? That's because at a certain power level, whether N/A or forced induction, you'll need drivetrain mods to handle the power, brake mods to slow the car, and perhaps suspension mods to support handling at higher duty cycles. That alone could eat up $6K, depending on what level of quality and reliability you are building to. If you are going to spend a lot of time above 100 mph I'd recommend a full cage, fixed racing seats and six-point harnesses. But then its no longer a street car. The other initial question is if you can do some or all of the fab work and assembly yourself, or if you are paying someone else to do everything. That said, the first thing to do is to put together a parts list and start adding up costs. Then multiply by some factor (such as 2 or 3) to end up with an estimate. I am sure our FAQ members can help you figure out what goes on that list and what questions to ask. Blow through carb vs. sequential EFI, etc. Finally, have you read the books on this subject, such as Maximum Boost by Corky Bell? Looking forward to your progress--someday I'll do a turbo, but spending enough time on my other engine projects for now. --Fred

We've had the body type discussion before. For me a 2002 has always been a type 114, not an e-code. But Tom Jones educated us thusly: All the round taillight '02 sedans are Type 114 All square taillight '02 sedans are E10 2002 Tourings are E6 So you've got an E10, and I've got both a Type 114 and an E10 Nomenclature: 2002 Vs '02 Vs E10 http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/143588-nomenclature-2002-vs-02-vs-e10/ --Fred

I cut holes in my front kick panels for speakers (JBLs, years ago) and that worked well for me. The heater core is just a mini-radiator but care must be taken in disassembling the heater box to get to it. Used cores are often available here, or maybe it can be repaired. Welcome to the club! --Fred

Hmmm--I've never had one of those go bad. They are stiff, tough, and nasty.... Was it loose when you pulled things apart? If not, I would look at the new brake shoes and the way they are installed to make sure they are correct. If you have the old shoes still you might pop them back on to make sure it is the springs that are bad. Is it both sides or just one? To answer your question, I would by new parts. if somehow the spring got so hot it annealed, it has lost its spring. --Fred

The shorter Rabbit struts are very short and require a spacer at the bottom of the strut to bring them up to the correct height such that the gland nut applies a bit of pressure to capture them when fully tightned, even when the strut has been shortened by 2". I don't have the exact length, as you need to cut to fit your particular strut. Jeremy at IE supplied me with some tubing of the correct diameter, just ask and I am sure he can help you out. --Fred

KF belt intact?

Welcome--here's a place to start: 2002 Buying Tips - How to find a good one http://www.bmw2002faq.com/_/technical-articles/history-and-reference/2002-buying-tips-how-to-find-a-good-one-r65

I still don't understand what "sheared". Are you saying that one or more of the three safety-wired bolts (#15 above) broke? There are no bearings associated with the steering arm (#16 above). Do you perhaps mean #9 above? I believe that is actually the pitman arm, and #5 above is the steering idler arm. Or, did the tie rod end or center link end threads strip? That is bolts #6 and tie rod #14 or center link #8 above. Like Toby, I R cornfused.....

No need to drain for those seals. Think about the fluid level and where the fill hole is. The fluid is well below the seals you will be replacing.--Fred

Assuming you have enough valve-to-piston clearance you can likely rev pretty high with the HD rockers/springs, but it does not make sense to rev much past the HP peak of the cam. As others have said, stock rockers are good to about 7000 rpm, so you should be able to go a bit higher. But unless you have a ton of head work and big exhaust, your engine really won't want to spin past that anyway with such a small cam. For comparison, for years I ran my tii with a 301 Norris cam, which is similar to a 285 (mild street cam), 9.5 pistons and stock rockers. The HP peak was at about 6700 and I generally shifted there or at 7,000 RPM. Thousands of track miles doing this with no issue. (Well, actually I did have one rocker break. But that is only one in more than a decade of track events.) Now I have an 11:1 engine with a Schrick 316, KM Cams steel rockers and VAC dual racing springs. It goes to 8000 RPM on the dyno, but HP peak is around 7800 and I shift at 7500 RPM or less. I think if the head flowed better it might spin a bit higher, but not a lot. This engine will need to be refreshed every 80-100 hours or so, depending on oil anaylsis and other diagnostics. I can't tell you what to do with megasquirt, but I would suggest that something in the realm of 6800 should be fine for your rev limit. All of this is for a 2.0L engine. If you have a stroker you might back it down a bit to keep piston speed reasonable. --Fred

A few years ago I was looking at ITB's for my M10 and identified 8 different brands. Folks chimed in with reviews and a few other options here: EFI Individual Throttle Body Reviews? http://www.bmw2002faq.com/topic/81331-efi-individual-throttle-body-reviews/ As posted elsewhere, I now have my ITB setup, but have not had time to install it and the associated engine. Hopefully this summer! --Fred